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Caden Robertson
5
Mo. Southern St. MSSU 16-9, 9-6 MIAA
8
Winner Central Oklahoma UCO 17-8, 8-6 MIAA
Mo. Southern St. MSSU
16-9, 9-6 MIAA
5
Final
8
Central Oklahoma UCO
17-8, 8-6 MIAA
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Mo. Southern St. MSSU 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 5 10 1
Central Oklahoma UCO 2 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 X 8 8 1

W: Pense, Brett (3-0) L: Cole Gayman (2-3)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Chris Brannick

Bronchos Take Game 1 Over Missouri Southern

Central Oklahoma Builds 8-1 Lead, Holds On For 8-5 Victory In MIAA Series

EDMOND – Caden Robertson's grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning put the exclamation point on an 8-5 Central Oklahoma win in Game 1 against Missouri Southern Friday night at Wendell Simmons Field.
 
Central Oklahoma improved to 18-8 on the season with the win and 8-6 in the MIAA. Missouri Southern is now 16-9 overall and 9-6 in league play.
 
"It was good to see the guys come out and play the way we did for most of the game," UCO head baseball coach John Martin said. "Brett (Pense) was really good today and got some run support. Missouri Southern is a really good team and we need to play this well all weekend."
 
With the win, Martin recorded his 300th victory since being named head coach of the UCO baseball program in 2015. Martin won 30 games in his first season, 2016, 37 back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018, and then 38 in 2019, taking his team to three national tournaments in his first four seasons. Martin's squad was 17-3 in 2020 when the season was canceled. Since then, Martin has won 25 games, 29 games, 32 games, and 37 games, with one more trip to the national tournament.
 
Martin is just the fourth coach of the program in more than 60 years and ranks third all-time in career wins.
 
Friday in Edmond, Brett Pense tossed six innings in improving to 3-0 on the season. The sophomore starter allowed just one run on five hits and didn't walk a batter on the day.
 
Chase Yarger came on to pitch the seventh and threw 2 2/3 innings, nearly earning a three-inning save. Yarger gave up four runs on five hits. Denton Whiteside came on to get the final out, a groundout, to win the game.
 
Pense struck out four batters on the day and Yarger fanned five more.
 
The pitching staff was boosted by an early lead and a strong finish to get the win.
 
Grant Randall, Ty Chapman, and Robertson occupied the top three spots in the UCO batting order, and all three had two hits in the game on Friday night.
 
Randall went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. Chapman went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles. Robertson was the star of the show.
 
The senior slugger from Magnolia, Texas went 2-for-5 with six RBIs and two runs scored. He hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning, scoring Randall, and then had a monster grand slam in the seventh. Robertson also had a late flyout to center field, with the ball coming down into an MSSU defender's glove just in front of the 390-feet center field wall.
 
UCO got a 3-0 lead in the third when Randall scored on a wild pitch. Robertson's grand slam in the seventh made it 7-1. Davan Brady added an RBI single later in the inning to make it 8-1.
 
Orlando Gonzalez scored on Brady's single. Both had one hit in the game.
 
Central Oklahoma and Missouri Southern will meet again Saturday at 2 p.m., then wrap up the three-game series on Sunday at 12 p.m.
 
 
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